Palm's CFO isn't the only well known employee announcing their departure today as word has come in that Marc Blank of ChatterEmail fame has left the company. Marc writes in a forum post"As of December 14, 2008, neither Josh nor I are affiliated with Palm, Inc.; therefore, neither of us will be monitoring this board or handling support [...] What's more, we are not privy to any plans that Palm might have for supporting new and existing customers."

Marc Blank was brought into the company in early 2007, when Palm purchased his ChatterEmail program. ChatterEmail is still widely considered as one of the best email solutions for Palm OS smartphones. While nothing was ever officially stated, Marc was suspected to be contributing to the email/messaging portion of Palm's next generation operating system.

Oh noooooooo...2 years of waiting down the drain. I have stuck wi

Oh noooooooo...2 years of waiting down the drain. I have stuck with my Treo 650 solely because of Chatter. I know Palm is cutting costs, but this is very shortsighted. Chatteremail is the best mobile email client on any platform.

Marc, if you're watching this, lead and I will follow. Please let your loyal fans know if there is a way to keep track of your next moves (Twitter?).

RE: Oh noooooooo...2 years of waiting down the drain. I have stuck wi

I only just acquired an iPhone. I'm still very uneasy leaving my Treo at home. iPhone email problems : can't have multiple exchange accounts (without going to a generic (non-IDLE) IMAP account; can't tell an account to sleep over-night (crazy!); send a photo via email, and it locks you from sending another until that one finishes; You can't add a photo to an email reply.

More amusement. Palm+Email = bye bye $$

I lose track so many acquisitions ago- Perhaps one of our resident historians can set me straight on precisely how many email solutions Palm Computing, ne Palm, Inc., ne PalmSource, Inc., etc. has purchased and tripped over itself failing to create a single comprehensive email solution? How many? 6? 7?

One has to wonder how one company in Silicon Valley could have the poor luck to continuously make such costly decisions time and time again.

In the immortal words of Ronco: "But, wait, there's more!" Just watch the headlines continue to reveal the sad spiral.

Many mourn the possibilities that might have been from this one-time promising, aspiring firm with a simple mantra that somehow got lost in gold-threaded suits and the ever grander promise of 'the next version of the Palm OS' which never arrived in product form-a chimera on the horizon, ever receding from grasp.

Once again we have a milestone to wait for. After years of disappointment, my expectations are low. Would that I could hope to be pleasantly surprised after all these years.

RE: VersaMail

Not that unusual

While I know the first thing most folks at PIC do is try to figure out the worst light to put news in this is not that unusual. When a product is bought and the creator goes in the company, the creator often leaves after a year or two. Part of it is when you have been the boss its hard to be an employee. Another part is, as has been mentioned here, he is probably going to develop for Android now that he has gotten some exposure to Linux smaprtphone programing. CA does not allow no compete contracts so he can get out the gate pretty fast. Also notice the Android app store will let you start charging in February. He kept the paycheck as long as he could and probably worked on the Android product on the side. A lot of Palm folks have been attracted to Android and his name would be a pull by itself.

Further, from Palm's POV, after he ported Chattermail to Nova they could let him go and save his probably high salary. Nova is a new OS and while I don't mean to diss his skills, Palm might have rather had lower paid code monkeys that are not hindered by thinking about the code from a garnet standpoint.

Finally, if he wanted out anyway, any Palm stock options he had would be easer to exercise and sell if her was no longer an insider. If he really thinks its gonna tank in the end he might be able to sell on the hop if they have a decent demo at CES. I have to say its been a while since I messed with SEC stuff and I do not recall how long he has to be out to lose his insider status.

"Many men stumble across the truth, but most manage to pick themselves upand continue as if nothing had happened." - Winston Churchill

RE: Not that unusual

For Palm Mike, for Palm. He will surely make some coin developing for Android. Particularly as Apple seems to be at the "first make mad" stage of the quote "...whom the gods destroy they first make mad."

"Many men stumble across the truth, but most manage to pick themselves upand continue as if nothing had happened." - Winston Churchill

More from Marc B.

The reason I resigned: My responsibilities had changed enough at Palm that I was no longer enjoying my work, or contributing in a way that I found satisfying. Please note that this should NOT be interpreted as any kind of judgment about Palm, its products (present or future), or the people there; this was very much a personal decision, and I wish Palm well.

RE: More from Marc B.

As a Palm-pessimist (No! Really!?) I'd say leaving one month before the Next Next Great Thang is introduced with its theoretical dramatic effect on the stock price and accompanying change in value of vested (and nonvested) stock options makes the departure a genuine statement on Palm and its future products no matter what the departee states (on prompting from Palm?).

RE: More from Marc B.

I'm enjoying all of this rampant speculation about "what it all means" (regarding the last few days of postings, not just on this article, but I suspect that as time goes on most of it will be shown to be nothing more than ignorant babbling. I think I'll just wait and see what it actually does all mean.

In this case, it may come as a surprise that there actually are people in the world who do not base all their decisions on what some stock has done, is doing or potentially will do. It's simply a matter of placing "value" somewhere else. Since I don't know Marc, and neither do you, who's to say?

"twrock is infamous around these parts" (from my profile over at Brighthand due to my negative 62 rep points rating)

PalmInfocenter.com is not affiliated with or endorsed by Palm Inc. or HP.
Any use of the word Palm is for discussion purposes and is a registered trademark of Palm Inc.
Unauthorized use or reproduction of content is strictly forbidden.